Path 2

About That Fetus Called to Testify in Court…

March 2, 2011

Yesterday we wrote about the 9-week-old fetus “called to testify in court” as part of anti-abortion group Faith2Action’s oh-so-dramatic effort to convince Ohio legislators to pass the so-called Heartbeat Bill, which would outlaw abortions after a fetus’s first detectable heartbeat. If passed, the bill would have the honor of becoming the most restrictive abortion law in America. Roe v. Wade currently upholds the right to an abortion until the fetus is “viable, usually at 22 to 24 weeks.”

Via the Columbus Dispatch,

“This bill would essentially outlaw abortions in Ohio because they would be banned before a woman even knows she is pregnant,” said Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-choice Ohio.

Janet Folger Porter, executive director of Faith2Action, got two women early in their pregnancies to have ultrasounds in front of legislators at the House Health Committee hearing. According to local news station WBNS-10TV,

The heartbeat of a fetus at 15 weeks gestation was easily detected. The heartbeat in a fetus of nine weeks gestation was difficult to detect.

Regardless of what came out of the courtroom “entertainment,” the bill has 50 co-sponsors and is thought likely to pass, but it’s “almost certain” to be challenged as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.